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Do you have any psionic soldiers maxed out? (mind control or the giant forcefield skills)

yeah i have 2 maxed out on this mission which i rekon is the last
i have to say when you find certain combos of skills and gear the battles get very easy even on classic for exp:
run and gun+double shot+crit boost+alloy cannon=dead alien. not sure there is anthing that can take two crits from the alloy cannon

I can't remember which skill it is, but I often pass on the crit bonus for another skill. (Edit- Close Combat gives a reaction shot for enemies moving with 4 tiles. It is the same rank as the crit bonus based on enemies in sight.)

The alloy cannon is awesome and it has far greater range than the shotguns. Sometimes it feels like the double shot assault skill (Rapid Fire) should be only useable with shotguns (original and laser) and not the rifles or the alloy cannon.

It's possible the alloy cannon's range isn't that much better than the shotguns but that my soldier wielding it had improved so much statistically that the long range % to hit went up around the same time as acquiring the alloy cannon. Either way, after you run and gun you're pretty much in their face and ready to crit anyway.

also
sniper with double tap+the skill that give you more high avantage+arcangel armour and the skill that let you shoot any squad members alien.use this go high as possable at the start of a mission and get 100% to hit even when they are in hard cover

I once managed to get one of my snipers to kill 3 mutons in a single turn, as she had the ability to move and fire and the ability that makes killing flanked and exposed enemies not count as an action. Was lucky enough to be able to make one move to flank 2 of the 3 and blast them all away!

also
sniper with double tap+the skill that give you more high avantage+arcangel armour and the skill that let you shoot any squad members alien.use this go high as possable at the start of a mission and get 100% to hit even when they are in hard cover

But when you swoop in to the air your actions end, right? At least that's what happened to me, coudn't do anything once I was in the air.

Thanks for the startup movies tip, it was getting annoying watching them every time.

It's funny how the game sometimes manages to turn the tables on you. After having a pretty confident and safe run for the last 5-6 missions, I encountered my first Ethereal and realised my guys are not so invincible after all. Got into the UFO after killing the aliens around it, to find an Ethereal and 3 Elite Mutons. The Ethereal mind-controlled one of my heavies immediately who proceeded to kill one of my guys and wound another one.It didn't help that all my soldiers except the sniper were inside the cramped space of the UFO, watching each other's backs, in perfect flanking positions. Panic started setting in and I was rushing to kill the Ethereal before it did more damage. The Mutons took out another one of my people in the mean time. I managed to get the sniper in time to take a shot at the Ethereal from behind and kill it and then dealt with the other 2 enemies. I thought the Ethereal only appears in the final mission?

I did find out however that if you manage to end the mission before the revive counter reaches 0, your soldier survives even if you don't manage to actually revive him/her.

No, I encountered a number of Etherals on my classic playthrough. I had so many bodies, I could make items out of them for the entire squad ;)

But you should have access to ghost armor at that point? After the first Etheral showed up (which I could kill before he did any harm, thanks to my at that time best assault Oshada) I always let a scouting unit in ghost armor check the bridge before marching in.

Thanks for the startup movies tip, it was getting annoying watching them every time.

It's funny how the game sometimes manages to turn the tables on you. After having a pretty confident and safe run for the last 5-6 missions, I encountered my first Ethereal and realised my guys are not so invincible after all. Got into the UFO after killing the aliens around it, to find an Ethereal and 3 Elite Mutons. The Ethereal mind-controlled one of my heavies immediately who proceeded to kill one of my guys and wound another one.It didn't help that all my soldiers except the sniper were inside the cramped space of the UFO, watching each other's backs, in perfect flanking positions. Panic started setting in and I was rushing to kill the Ethereal before it did more damage. The Mutons took out another one of my people in the mean time. I managed to get the sniper in time to take a shot at the Ethereal from behind and kill it and then dealt with the other 2 enemies. I thought the Ethereal only appears in the final mission?

I did find out however that if you manage to end the mission before the revive counter reaches 0, your soldier survives even if you don't manage to actually revive him/her.

Here's a tip for mind controlled dudes: When one of your guys is taken over he will try to shoot or chase you so make sure you're running away from the Ethereal/Sect. Commander and keep escaping from the mind probed crew member until the psy link is broken because of the distance. Saves you a lot of pain and casualties.

Thanks for the tips. I did exactly the opposite, suppressing my mind-controlled member and trying to take out the Ethereal as fast as possible with the rest of the squad. Of course the Elite mutons flanked me and suppression ended a turn later and disaster ensued. I ll try this approach next time. I think I was fooled by the ease with which I killed Sectoid commanders earlier...

I do have the ghost armour but I think I didn't take it for that mission. Now I know better!

I prefer high-ranking snipers with ghost armor to SHIVs for scouting. First of all: they can turn invisible and with the defense boost they are pretty much treated like being always in half-cover. When being in actual cover they are pretty tough to hit. You can also give them mind shields for some psi defense (but against Etherals that might not be enough). I never really got along with the SHIV on the other hand.

I'd be happy with a camera that isn't wonky, for starters. I HATE when it does weird things or doesn't register there is a second floor on that building and will never make the roof transparent excep on a very specific angle that's useless to you.